I listened to Mika (a pop singer) the whole time I was pregnant an after I gave birth to her Mika was the only music I could play that would instantly calm her and put her to sleep. She is 18 months now, extremely smart and still reacts more to Mika than any other music. I played classical music for her as a newborn but she didn't seem interested in it.

My 3 weeks old daughter loves classical music. I use this app for my phone: https://itunes.apple.com/app/classical-music-for-babies/id525363783.
It puts her to sleep and calms her for nappy changing. I love the fact that there are different types of music to choose from depending on what your baby is going through. Even my 5 year old loves it.

A friend of mine and my wife's is a pediatric neurologist. When we were taking our son home the other day she gave us a Mozart CD and recommended we play it any time there's no other background noise going on. I was surprised, given I had already read about how false the Mozart effect was.

She explained that while there isn't an intelligence benefit to listening to Mozart, there is a development benefit to any and all stimulation of the sense. Mozart happens to be a very relaxing and soft source of background noise; aka stimulation for when there may otherwise not be any. Effectively, she was telling us to play this Mozart in the same fashion as recommending that we constantly talk to him, touch him, show him things, etc. Stimulation of the senses!

I listen to classical music as a baby and as a kid into my teens when I slept and I had better grades than the other kids and never tried even with test I never drudged and I went to Harvard and graduated at the top of my class

I have to say I still believe that classical music stimulates the brain on an intellectual level, maybe not make anyone smarter but I am sure it stimulates the left part of the brain. I'd rather my son listen to Mozart over the junk they have children surrounded by that they call music.

I grew up with classical music since the womb and have been fond of it since and know that it does in fact help me focus more and gives me a sense of peace and calmness. So in that sense yes it makes us smarter because we are stimulating that logical side rather than being a goof. In life you have to take everything from researchers and Doctors with a grain of salt.

Sleep Bug generates ambient sounds and gives you the possibility to add sound effects.
There is a classical scene there with classical music and different sound effects like violins, cello, drums and solo violin. My 2 year old son loves this and you should try it too.
With 19 different scenes you will love this app. Dream yourself away to the beach, on a train, childhoods music box, jungle, forest, zen garder, weather and many more. Hey there is even a horror scene if thats your thing :)

An active baby in the womb when classical music is playyed doesn't necessarily mean it has a positive effect, the baby might be annoyed, disturbed or it might even just move because it's different to what it normally hears. Yes babies do hear in the womb!

To the commenter who said they can't hear, that's a crock. It's been proven that they can hear through repeated tests. More importantly, we felt ours move just the morning. She didn't move with regular music, but started stirring the instant we turned classical music on. When we turned it off, it stopped. We tried again with both types and, again, there was movement.

The problem with you is you've closed your mind off to any ideas that don't mesh with your own opinions. That's why you will "never be convinced otherwise."

I'm more of a believer of nurture over nature. I believe that parents that spend time with their children helping them develop skills parent successful children.
I also believe that a fetus cannot hear classical music through all the protective layers of the female body. Headphones on the belly are nutty, and I will never be convinced otherwise.
I do believe that listening to classical music is relaxing, and that a relaxed mother is a step towards a relaxed baby, in or out of the womb (although if the baby's unhappy, how can you relax anyway?) I wouldn't mind having classical music on when I give birth.

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